Designers

Style

Setting

Colors

If you ask me my favorite style of wedding, without even thinking I’ll say classic. I’ll spew it out without even a moments hesitation (you might not even have time to finish your question), because it’s the type of wedding that made me fall in love with weddings. With beautiful nods to tradition and elegance seeping from every detail, weddings like like this one – captured in a perfectly classic fashion by Gladys Jem in the perfectly beautiful city of San Francisco – will be forever beautiful, because it is forever timeless, and how could you not be a fan of that? See so much more here.

From the Bride… Carlo and I met in 2009 at a birthday party in San Francisco. We were soon inseparable and many of our first dates revolved around the famous landmarks of the beautiful city of San Francisco. The city played such a huge role in our relationship that it was a no brainer to have our wedding in the place where we met and fell in love. We wanted a wedding that was intimate, elegant, and timeless and we found the perfect setting in the Green Room at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. The gorgeous room is modeled after the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, with 28-foot high ceilings, chandeliers, mint green walls and gold accents. Not only was the room beautiful but it also held special significance to us since we were engaged in France. With the Green Room as our backdrop, we started to plan all the other details around it. Our ceremony was held on the fourth floor of San Francisco City Hall, right across the street, amidst the grand marble and iconic rotunda. We chose white, black and touches of gold as our colors, so as not to compete with the color of the Green Room, and to set the tone for the formality of the occasion. Our florist created romantic and dramatic arrangements to fit the grandeur of the room and calligraphy played a major role throughout the design of our wedding from our save the dates and letterpress invitations, down to the table names and place cards.

The most special part of the reception for me was the dessert table I designed. Having a major sweet tooth myself and being a graduate of San Francisco Baking Institute, it was only right to shower our guests with sweets and desserts. I picked all the candy to match the color scheme and collaborated with the caterer to add the chocolate pot de crèmes and mini cheesecakes to the table. Our cake included three delectable flavors and was adorned with cake toppers made by my crafty bridesmaid. I commissioned a local bakery to create the almond and black sesame French macarons that everyone devoured. And perhaps the most ambitious DIY project I took on during the whole planning process was to make the sugar cookies, brownies, Mexican wedding cookies, and miniature carrot cupcakes that filled the rest of the dessert spread. It was definitely a labor of love that was worth all the effort and energy to share a part of me with everyone. We left white paper bags for our guests to fill with treats that we printed with the theme of our whole wedding, “Love is Sweet.”

Our wedding was everything we imagined and so much more. Our first look was definitely the most memorable part of the day for us since we were both so emotional! The ceremony, officiated by my cousin and written by us, expressed exactly how we felt about each other and our commitment. The parade from City Hall to the Green Room across the street was so much fun, with our two giant white balloons leading the way and everyone waving the streamer sticks I had made out of ribbon, wooden dowels and bells. And our wedding party went above and beyond with their heartfelt speeches and their choreographed dances during their introductions. Carlo and I both felt so overwhelmed and humbled by the joy and love that surrounded us on our special day and we couldn’t imagine it being anymore perfect!